Rat & Cousin are onto something here, keeping the balance of the universe in order to maintain harmony. Whereas too much government will be offset by anti-government forces naturally.
I can't remember now the name of one intellectual, I think a sociologist, who was giving a talk and describing the differences between the ancient world and the modern world. He insisted that the ancient world had been dominated by a drive to look outside (for example, astronomy/astrology, eschatology, religious rejection of the world as in Zen Buddhism, the search for a hero and the desire to become a hero) and the modern era was dominated by a drive to look inside (for example, the development of psychology, biology, the rewriting of history, positive law and the search for the most perfect method of execution).
He estimated that this turn inwards of humanity (or maybe only of the intellectual/artistic class of humans) started in the 1400s, and the Renaissance was its infancy, a rising force still unpredictable, and it it came of age in the 1600s, with people like Descartes and Rembrandt, both of them experts in cheese and other topics of alchemy.
The conclusion of this man's talk was that the problem of the 20th century was that Government was too small and it lacked ambition because of excessive selfishness and individualism of the people, and we should follow the example of the ancient world, where government was big and ambitious, and there were big civil engineering projects and big works of art everywhere, and people were happy. It was a surprising conclusion because there is the alternative take that Government was very small in the ancient world, and people were probably happier then because they lived for others, not because of a centralized planning of human life.
Cheese, the purest example of good economic planning, is one of the best surviving inventions of the ancient world. But in our time we have sachets of dehydrated soy beans (see soylent dot com and its dubious line of products). Nothing is more diseconomical than low quality dehydrated food, without taste or color or shape. Modernity is a failure, and cheese stands against it pointing an accusatory finger and giving a stern look.
Most of the ancient megaprojects were technically private, even though funded by monarchs or oligarchs to whom war plunder accrued; the difference from the modern government is that they didn’t create permanent bureaucracies. There was no Ministry of Pyramids.
Even imperium was initially a sanction to do specific things for specific aims, often as minor as organizing a barbecue party, er, I mean religious feast. Only when Pompey in 687 UAC (67 BC) received an imperium to «fight pirates on all seas and 50 miles inland» and turned out too successful, they got the unfortunate idea of making such organization permanent.
Most modern oligarchs are wasting their riches on luxuries and leaving no trace in history. Maybe Musk will be an exception, or maybe not.
Government leaves physics a unsolvable mystery .
I'll meet you at Galt's Gulch Galaxy! 🚀🛸🪐🌌🗽
Always thinking on the bright side, that Rat⚡️
Rat & Cousin are onto something here, keeping the balance of the universe in order to maintain harmony. Whereas too much government will be offset by anti-government forces naturally.
I can't remember now the name of one intellectual, I think a sociologist, who was giving a talk and describing the differences between the ancient world and the modern world. He insisted that the ancient world had been dominated by a drive to look outside (for example, astronomy/astrology, eschatology, religious rejection of the world as in Zen Buddhism, the search for a hero and the desire to become a hero) and the modern era was dominated by a drive to look inside (for example, the development of psychology, biology, the rewriting of history, positive law and the search for the most perfect method of execution).
He estimated that this turn inwards of humanity (or maybe only of the intellectual/artistic class of humans) started in the 1400s, and the Renaissance was its infancy, a rising force still unpredictable, and it it came of age in the 1600s, with people like Descartes and Rembrandt, both of them experts in cheese and other topics of alchemy.
The conclusion of this man's talk was that the problem of the 20th century was that Government was too small and it lacked ambition because of excessive selfishness and individualism of the people, and we should follow the example of the ancient world, where government was big and ambitious, and there were big civil engineering projects and big works of art everywhere, and people were happy. It was a surprising conclusion because there is the alternative take that Government was very small in the ancient world, and people were probably happier then because they lived for others, not because of a centralized planning of human life.
Cheese, the purest example of good economic planning, is one of the best surviving inventions of the ancient world. But in our time we have sachets of dehydrated soy beans (see soylent dot com and its dubious line of products). Nothing is more diseconomical than low quality dehydrated food, without taste or color or shape. Modernity is a failure, and cheese stands against it pointing an accusatory finger and giving a stern look.
Most of the ancient megaprojects were technically private, even though funded by monarchs or oligarchs to whom war plunder accrued; the difference from the modern government is that they didn’t create permanent bureaucracies. There was no Ministry of Pyramids.
Even imperium was initially a sanction to do specific things for specific aims, often as minor as organizing a barbecue party, er, I mean religious feast. Only when Pompey in 687 UAC (67 BC) received an imperium to «fight pirates on all seas and 50 miles inland» and turned out too successful, they got the unfortunate idea of making such organization permanent.
Most modern oligarchs are wasting their riches on luxuries and leaving no trace in history. Maybe Musk will be an exception, or maybe not.
Amazing.
Anti-cheese, I believe, is official federal reserve policy
I should have seen that coming! 😂
Rat is truly wise.
I don’t mind (or compley) ‘cause it don’t matter.